The Spruce of The Future

In 1917, the parliament of Finland declared Finland as an independent nation. To celebrate it, a spruce seed was cultivated, This Independence Spruce was planted later at Kaivopuisto Park in Helsinki.

When Finland celebrated 50 years of independency in 1967, tens of thousands of spruce seedlings were planted. It was said that the origin of these seedlings were from The Independence Spruce. These spruces were called “Home Spruces” and they were planted together with a copper plaque with a text: “Home Spruce, planted in 1967 when Finland had been 50 years as an independent country.”

The story will continue in 2017 with a campaign called The Spruce of The Future. We call Finns, people who live in Finland and friends of Finland to plant a tree or small forest to celebrate centenary of Finland independence. The campaign started with mapping the status of Home Spruces planted in 1967. Hundreds of Finns have sent photos and stories about their Home Spruces. These trees have been important to Finns through generations and living memorials of our independency.

This campaign is initiated by Environment Online – ENO, a global school network for sustainable development. It is coordinated by the ENO Programme Association in Finland. ENO was launched 15 years ago in Finland and has spread to over 10 000 schools in 157 countries. The most popular activity is tree planting. ENO made a pledge in Rio+20 Summit in 2012, to plant 100 million trees by 2017.